Photos from the Wikimedia Commons. Hell Gate Bridge at midnight.

daily paper that informed the community about local and world news until it folded in 1968. A banner across the Star-Journal masthead reminded readers that the newspaper's name came from the merger of the Long Island Daily Star (1876) and the North Shore Daily Journal-- The Flushing Journal (1841).

Welcome to April 1911!

Plans for the Hell Gate Bridge were announced on April 15. The New York Connecting Railroad planed building the unprecedented four-track bridge (at a cost of $20,000,000) within four years. Two tracks were to carry passengers to Pennsylvania Station as part of a new through service from Quebec to Florida. The other two rail lines were to carry freight to the South Brooklyn freight terminal where car floats would convey them onto barges, with a capacity of 30 cars each, to the new rail yards in Greenville, New Jersey. A series of bridges and viaducts between The Bronx and Woodside were to meet at the 1,000-foot span at the Hell Gate.

Bleriot monoplane.

Patrolmen James McGill and Patrick Dunn, while under the Vernon Avenue bridge viaduct shortly before noon, nabbed two young men who gave their names as Joseph Howard and John Clark. The officers had heard that the men were visiting stores in the neighborhood and after making small purchases suspiciously offered $10 and $20 bills in payment. Fortunately none of the shopkeepers could change the money, and if it was phony, as was suspected by the police, no one lost anything. Although no shopkeeper wanted to press charges, as the two men had come to Hunters Point that morning and admitted to losing $21 in craps at the wharf, they were charged with gambling.

Photo Courtesy of Long Island Division, Queens Library Middle Village Station 1911: Children line up to enter the Middle Village Station of the Queens Borough Public Library, which was established in a candy store in 1911.

There was joy in Jamaica when members of the Citizen's Committee won a battle with a bill posting company that was responsible for "immoral posters" which decorated the fences. Bowing to community pressure, the advertising company agreed that when a burlesque poster showed a woman in tights, "Something will be placed over those tights to hide from view any of the woman's bare limbs."

Photo from 'Steel Rails to the Sunrise' by Ron Ziel Roxie the LIRR pup.

On April 21, the Chamber of Commerce of Queens Borough was organized. The first meeting, held at the Waldorf-Astoria, was well attended. Initial membership was to be exclusive and limited to only 100 members who paid annual dues of $50 after an initiation fee of $25. The organization was created to encourage rapid transit, the development of commercial and industrial buildings and the building of homes.

On April 19, the Queens Borough Public Library closed the books on its 15th year. It was a banner year by every measure. Active membership was nearly 45,000 (of which one third signed up during the previous year), circulation was three quarters of a million books, and a new traveling library was started. A branch at Woodside opened, joining more than a dozen other locations throughout the borough. Richmond Hill had the highest circulation.

There was a steady demand for foreign books. There was a population of 68,000 foreign born in Queens at the time of which Germans (34,000), Italians (12,500), Poles (10,000) and Bohemians (5,700) were the largest groups. The library requested $1,000,000 in capital funds for new branches, including Carnegie libraries planned at Long Island City and Jamaica.

Roxie, the railroad dog, made a mistake. He got aboard the wrong train at Sunnyside Yards and much against his will, went to Philadelphia.

Roxie belonged to the board of directors, the officials and all the employees and especially the trainmen of the Long Island Rail Road. At the private homes of employees at various points on Long Island he always found the latch-string out and a juicy bone awaiting him. Roxie had a lifetime pass on the LIRR that seemed to be good on the Pennsylvania lines as well.

Roxie had never been known to make an error when selecting trains. He always knew where he was going (at least if we accept the serious statements of his railroad friends.)

Therefore, it was a matter of wonder to all his rail friends when he made a mistake. In the ordinary course of his trip to the new Pennsylvania Station, which he frequently inspected, he went into the city on a LIRR train and returned later in the day when he was ready on a Queens-bound train. This time he got aboard a train for Pennsylvania Station, but instead of stopping in New York, it was a through train that went straight to Philadelphia. Poor Roxie had to go, too. Probably no more indignant dog ever landed at Philadelphia's Broad Street station. The moment the train stopped and the doors were opened, Roxie hopped out and ran down the platform, wheeled about a couple of times, and let out a couple of yelps, which sounded suspiciously like canine swearing. He immediately selected a train headed back for New York and in five minutes was aboard at his usual post of duty.

That's the way it was in April 1911!

On May 7, at 7 p.m. examine the past when the society, in conjunction with the New York State Council for the Humanities, presents special guest Dr. Christopher Ricciardi, an archeologist for the Army Corps of Engineers, who will talk on "The Archaeological History of New York City". Attend a fascinating excursion embracing the span of time from the age of Native Americans to the dawn of the twentieth century. For more information, call the Greater Astoria Historical Society at 718-278- 0700 or visit www.astorialic.org. Funding provided in part by City Councilmember Peter Vallone and the city Department of Cultural Affairs.

The Society is open to the public on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Quinn's Gallery, 4th Floor, 35-20 Broadway, Long Island City. For more information, contact the Greater Astoria Historical Society at 718-728-0700 or visit www.astorialic.org.